Had a chance to sit down and talk to coach Lorenzo Romar about a variety of topics, which I’ll roll out in blog posts and stories over the next few days.

Here’s our conversation about the players competing for a spot in the back court.

(I believe one of the more interesting position battles will be the third guard spot. I think two spots are locked up with Andrew Andrews and Nigel Williams-Goss while the third spot looks to be a battle between Mike Anderson and Darin Johnson. Anyone I’m leaving out?) “Well you left Donaven Dorsey out. You left Quevyn Winters out. Those guys are pretty smart basketball players. It’ll be a very competitive camp.”

(Can Dorsey play that position? I ask because he looked bigger than I realized.) “He is, but he’s skilled. He can go smaller. He can dribble the ball. He can shoot the ball. He’s skilled. But you know, again we started four guards out of necessity last year. But when we went to the NCAA tournament in 2010 with Quincy Pondexter, Justin Holiday, Isaiah Thomas and either Scott Suggs or Terrence Ross, so there were four guards in the starting lineup. So you’re talking three and it could be four. We’ll see what happens.”

(I hear you. It just seemed as if you didn’t want to do that four-guard lineup.) “It depends on what kind of guards they are. It depends. Quincy was strong and he could rebound. Holiday could rebound. When you got two of your bigger guards that can do that, then you can possibly make it work.”

(So you don’t go in thinking Anderson, Johnson, Dorsey or Winters for that one spot?) “I can’t say that.”

(Can I say it?) “Yeah. But you may not be right. A team that we coach, you have to throw everybody in there. You can’t leave anybody out. There’s examples that we’ve had in the past where I can tell that it can happen. Terrence Ross, we talked about it that maybe he would have to redshirt his freshman year. No. He was in the mix. He didn’t defend, but by the end of the year he was right in there. I thought in Isaiah Thomas’ freshman year him and Venoy Overton would be the starting guards. But Justin Dentmon changed all that and he was the starting guard.”

(I only say that because if Jernard Jarreau returns and he’s everything that he’s supposed to be and if you have another big man up front, then that leaves you three guards to fill out the lineup.) “What if anyone of those guys that you name and they come out and they are just balling? And they start. And Andrews doesn’t start. Or Nigel doesn’t start. I can’t tell you wants going to happen like that.”

THURSDAY MORNING LINKS:

— Washington junior guard Andrew Andrews had nine points on 3-for-7 shooting, four assists and two steals for the Pac-12 All-Star, which rolled 85-63 in an exhibition game over the Jiangsu Dragons, a Chinese professional team. Arizona State’s Bo Barnes scored a game-high 18, Utah’s Jordan Loveridge had 13 and USC’s Nikola Jovanovic 11. It was the second straight win for the Pac-12 players during their four-game overseas tour.

— The first step in correcting a problem is admitting you have a problem. Arizona sophomore Rondae Hollis-Jefferson opened up about his suspect jumper and vowed to improve his perimeter shooting during the offseason.

— No matter how much work Hollis-Jefferson puts into his jumper, the best part of his game will always be the way he hustles.